Stilleto Sprint

(DeLonne, Brandalee, Lareen, Mom, DeLayne, Audralyn and me in our stilletos and pink hair!)

My sister, Audralyn, lives in Texas. They had their first annual Stilleto Sprint last year in September right when DeLayne was diagnosed with cancer. So she thought it would be wonderful if we all could go out there, a year later, for the second annual Stilleto Sprint. Of course it was a long shot but guess what? We all could go, 5 sisters and mom, and flew out the 2nd week of September.

I, of course, had to fly Jet Blue on the red eye. Funny story...you would think that I would know airports/airplanes are cold because I fly more often but I had in my head that Houston is HOT and humid. So I didn't pack a jacket. While on the plane ride to JFK I was cold and wanted to sleep but couldn't because I was cold (and those darn blankets now cost money!!) So when everyone besides me was asleep, I slipped my hands inside my short-sleeve shirt and slept. Funny thing is when I went to sleep it was dark but when I woke up it was light and everyone was awake so I hurried and pulled my hands out. Embarrased, NO! but I'm sure the people besides me thought I was a dork!

When I got to Texas, we went to a wonderful Mexican restaurant. Delicioso! We then headed to Woodland Hills to spend the night (about an hour away). The next morning we woke up early and got all dallied up in our pink tutus and pink hair. We all looked so cute. The sprint races (it was about 50 yard race) did not last long but it sure was fun. I would love to start one here in Utah. The best were the men in their stilletos. Some of those men sure can get competitive.

After the race, we headed over for shopping. We had a little incident with the Texas police...Put it this way...a few Bluth girls in your face is not a good thing. The cop was not pleased with us and I was a little disappointed in my sisters behavior. Enough said. Feelings got hurt but all is well. We ended the day by ordering famous Texas BBQ and watching the BYU. Unfortunately, we did not win.

Church was the next day. We sang "Abide with my Tis Eventide." If you are a Bluth, you sing. I never like to sing in public 1) I didn't get the talent my sisters have and 2) I don't like to be the center of attention. But I did it for my sister both DeLayne and Audralyn. The song has deep meaning and emotional for us. Audralyn is the primary chorister so we had some fun with (using a phone to call in the songs, superhero "twin" sister.)

My flight didn't leave until Monday afternoon. So I was able to hang out with Audralyn and my adorable niece Eva. She is the sweetest girl ever! I loved spending time with Audralyn. I love my sister in Texas. I wish she lived closer.

Fun time with sisters. I love my sisters and glad mom could join us for some fun memories.

Labor Day Weekend

The whole gang-Packers, Gammons, Talbots

So I have a group of women I walk with every morning. We call it exercise but I call it my "free therapy". Not that I have many problems, but is sure is nice to talk about things with others. I really love these women. They are wonderful women and mothers, a great example to me, and lots of fun. One of the women grew up in Koosharem, UT. Even growing up in UT I have never heard of it (It is a tiny town with limited cell phone coverage). Jennifer and I had nothing to do over Labor Day so we invited ourselves and went to their cabin. It was a fun weekend. We caught crawdads, feed the fish, went fishing (everyone caught at least one fish), shooting guns, and went to church where 90% were in jeans and tshirts. A very different experience. I think the highlight was riding the tractor in the bucket. Such fun memories! Becky, you are so invited next time!!

Catching crawdads with hot dogs.

This is the meetinghouse for church service on Sunday. Over 1000 people were in attendance and they even passed the sacrament! I was impressed. They then had a testimony people where most people started by saying "I grew up here..." We are hoping to someday say " We have been coming here for years for Labor Day..." :)

Linda's dad owns a fish farm. We went and feed the fish this morning. The fish were jumping and splashing as we feed them their pellet food. It was quite a sight.

Fishing or I should say Catching. Everyone caught at least one fish from the pond and they were large fish. We took some home and fried them up. Delicious!!

I think the best part was the tractor ride. All the kids are in the bucket and he took them up high and low and even tilted. They were screaming with delight.

Mary Poppins

Our school was having a special sale on Mary Poppins at Capital Theater. I didn't have any desire to go but for $20 each (it was buy one get one free). I decided to go and take my 2 daughters. It was completely magical. As I sat there and watched, it made me realize that everything I need to learn about parenthood/motherhood comes from Mary Poppins...

Have fun while working ("Spoonful of sugar"-In every job, there is an element of fun)

Service ("Feed the birds")

Stop and enjoy life ("Let's go fly a kite")

Be happy and make others happy ("Jolly Holiday")

Mary Poppins was amazing and I loved Bert. Wouldn't it be nice to have a Mary Poppins with all of us? When Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious started I was a little disappointed because it was different but by the end it was my favorite!!! Amazing and fun choreography. And when Bert climbed the edge of the stage to the top upside-down...WoW! I also loved when Mary Poppins flew out. We happened to be sitting right there where she flew to and it felt like she was coming to me. I know cheesy but it did bring a tear to my eye. LOVED IT! I hope I can be more like Mary Poppins.

Summer activities

This summer has been my favorite so far. We didn't go anywhere (except for Idaho) but explored Utah and loved it!

This is how our weeks went throughout the summer:

Swimming at AF pool twice a week

Alpine park (best park ever!!) twice a week

PG lake and/or Cedar Hills park once a week

Obviously we were outside every day. We always met up with cousins at each event either swimming, or at the park, or at the lake. In July, the Allens came to visit for 3 weeks and we loved it. We did so much with the Allens while they were here...swimming, boating, timp cave, Stadium of Fire, Seven Peaks. I have to say something about Seven Peaks. I am not a fan. Too much money, you have to pay to park plus more for tubes, and you can't bring in any food. Well, reluntantly I went because I had free passes. It rained around 5pm and everyone (no joke EVERYONE) left. It only rained for about 15-20 minutes but they had to wait to make sure that no lightening was in the area. Of course we stayed, we always are the last ones to leave seven peaks. About 30 minutes later, they reopened the park and we had it all to ourselves. We went from ride to ride. The rides were so fast that my sister, Audralyn, and I would leave our 3 year olds at the bottom of the ride and go up to the top and meet them a few minutes later. It was a blast! The best experience I have had at Seven Peaks ever!

At the end of July, we had our Chinese students for 3 weeks which is always a treat. Last year it was really hard because I had some difficult students but this year was awesome! They were so respectful and fun to be with. I love inviting them into my homes, even though I think it is hilarious that they come to Utah for a "American experience" with Mormon families.

We went boating periodically throughout the summer with the Allens, Prattes and Hucks. Went to Yuba Lake (which has to be a tradition now...great place for camping and boating and it is close!). Had a Talbot family reunion at the end of August and celebrated our 15 year anniversary (hopefully we can go on our planned vacation...if Paul's work slows down, not complaining at all, glad he is busy). And I had a miscarriage in the middle of the summer. Other than bleeding for 5 weeks (I know this may be TMI), it was a fanastic summer!!

Stadium of Fire. One of my most favorite thing is the after party after Stadium of Fire. It's in the cougar room and they feed us and then we don't have to wait for the traffic. Just a perk for having my dad on the Freedom Board.

Most of the grandkids after the 4th of July parade. What a bunch!

We weren't planning on hiking this day but just hang around Sundance but last minute we went to Stewarts Falls. It's not a hard hike or long (about 2 miles) but with flip flops it was hard and long! Our feet were filthy! Fun times!

The kids took hours to build this jacuzzi. The sisters would just sit in the shade and talk.

Talbot reunion at Warm River, ID. Kids loved floating the river but it ain't warm!

Russ and Michele's wedding-First event of the summer

I wrote this post in June but finally attached some pictures so I have reposted it so you can see with the pictures. Enjoy!

Bride and Groom w/family

Russ and Michele are married! On June 4th, Paul's brother finally married the girl he has been dating, off and on, for 5 years. We all wanted him to marry her, it just took him a little bit longer to figure it out. It was very exciting and I even got to help out with some of the wedding decisions which was pretty cool for me. I think I might become a wedding planner (totally kidding, I've seen bridzella, what a nightmare!).

The first thing I was asked to do was to help with the invitations. They had all the colors and designs picked out but I recommended a place here that saved them a lot of money. The owner is a friend of mine (PG Printers, if anyone is in need of invitations). When I got there I didn't realize that I had to choose the paper. Very stressful for me because I was choosing for some one else. I think they liked my choice.

I was able to help with the bridal shoot. We went to a place in Lehi behind "Nooks and Crannys" that doesn't charge and has a lot of places to take cool pictures. All the pictures turned out gorgeous!

I'm not sure how I got involved in everything but suddenly I am looking for ties, hairbows, bridesmaid dresses, flowergirl dresses, jewelry for the bridesmaid. It was so much fun! I found ties at a place in Fashion Place Mall. I brought my mom and sisters knowing they can help me in finding a good tie. We found a tie that we all loved. Everything had to be send via text or email. I sent a picture to Michele and I don't think she loved them so I bought one, put it on Paul, as my model, with a good camera to show the colors and send it to her. Russ and Michele's sister loved them so I bought them a couple days later.

Paul is my model to show Michele to see if she likes the tie. Russ loved it!

I found the hairbows from a neighbor who sells them to stores like Roberts, Michaels, etc. This is the best story. Michele had a certain green she wanted, not a forest green or a lime green but more a grass green. I looked all over for the specific color and found green hairbows at Robert's. After confirming that the color was what she liked, I went to my friend and asked him if he had any hairbow that color green. He said "Those are my hairbows and I can get you as many as you need for $1 each" Yippee! I was so happy because I knew I would not find 18 hairbows at one store and I did not want to go all over Utah finding them. We put 2 on a headband for each of the flower girls and 1 for each of the bridesmaid.

The flower girl dresses were easy because we just used my sister's from a few years ago. They were creme and we accented them with green. We had all the sizes we needed. Flower girl dresses checked off.

Cousins in the flower girl dresses. Don't you love the cute hairbows?!?

Bridesmaid dresses were a little bit harder. Eventually we just went with a simple black dress and yellow shoes (her colors were yellow and green). I found a necklace that had yellow and green, pearl bracelets and pearl earrings. Another cool story with the earrings. So we were looking for jewerly one Saturday, Michele in Vegas and I here in Utah. We would text pictures of jewerly we found to see if we liked. This went on all day. I found the bracelets but could not find earrings I liked to go with the ensemble. I went to Kohl's as one of my last stops towards the end of the day. I found the perfect earrings but they only had 2, I needed 5 so I asked them if they could call other stores. One store in Salt Lake had 3 more but then I thought why not have them call their Las Vegas stores which they did. The store had 5 and they put them on hold. I texted Michele and told her to pick them up. She was about 5 minutes away and she loved them plus they gave her a discount even though she didn't have any coupons. I love Kohl's!

What was the most fun was planning the bachelorette party. Paul was doing a bachelor party for Russ with his friends and I wanted Michele to have a fun night the last night she is single. Her sisters came and we ate and played fun games. One game was asking Russ questions and Michele had to guess his answers. They have known each other for 5 years, she should have gotten everyone right! Each one she got right, she got to pick a present. We had good presents and pranks-like presents (lotions, pregnancy test, her favorite candy, mints, etc). My favorite was large underwear/lingerine. Just something we give to family getting married. Lots of Laughs. The other game was questions I asked to all the sisters (and me) about marriage, relationships, tips and suggestions. It was a lot of fun!

Of course, you have to have large underwear at a bachlorette party. You should have seen her face as she was opening it up. It was priceless. She told me later that she thought it was the ugliest thing and didn't know how to tell me she didn't like it but soon realized it was a gag gift. So much fun!

The wedding was beautiful. I love weddings. I love live sealings. It reminds me of my wedding day (so nervous, so young, so lucky). It is so good to hear the ceremony again and all the great advice from the sealer. One thing I remember from the sealer is he said to hold hands often even in public (if you know me I do not like PDA) because it then says to You Belong to Me. I am trying to do that more now. Then it was pictures and a luncheon at the Northampton House. Then they were off onto their honeymoon.

The tradition Just Married on the car except I added FINALLY. :)

Sunday night we get a call wondering if they could open their presents. It was fun for the kids to help them. Then they wanted Paul and I to come to their cabin at Sundance and spend the night. I thought they were kidding but they weren't. So we had my mom and sister watch the kids and we crashed their honeymoon. Wierd? Not at all. They practically have been married for years. It was a lot of fun and lots of wonderful memories!

MIA

I feel like I have been "missing in action" since I haven't written on my blog for months. I took the summer off (more to post later) and now have been in the thick of activities with my kids. I started to panic towards the end of the summer because the kids were going back to school and I was worried I would have too much time on my hands. I didn't know what I was going to do to fill that "extra" time. I decided to volunteer more at the school and then I got a teaching job at the dance studio my kids attend. Now I am busier than ever! Volunteering 2 times at the school, dance class 2 times a week, dance class for each daughter, piano lessons, helping out with Paul's work, homework each night, and all other mother/homemaker chores, you could see why I have been MIA. Extra time, what extra time?!?

So I may not blog all the time but hopefully enough to write down my thoughts and document events in my family life for keepsake. It is my journal and I know I will be so glad to have it.

I may have to back track and tell about all the adventures in the summer. It was a wonderful summer!